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Thursday, July 26, 2012

THE MAYORS' BETTER IDEA: Make Broadway Bridge a park, after building new span upriver. The Highway Department will have none of it.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department yesterday (D-G, paywall) told the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock that they and their consulting engineers don't know what they're talking about. The one and only solution for what they perceive is a problem with the Broadway Bridge is to tear it down and replace it with an ugly piece of concrete similar to, say, the homely Main Street span. We'll get a couple of years of traffic nightmares first. Oh, yeah, there's a window dressing plan of a poorly designed alternate structure to be built alongside the existing span, which could then be converted for pedestrian use. The Highway Department's heart isn't in that plan, clearly. Where is George Fisher when we need him to put "Keep Busy" pith helmets on the pointy heads of highway engineers?

The solution is to hold the phone. Give up the federal money available this year for Broadway replacement, if indeed it really can't be put on hold. Continue the pittance of annual maintenance costs. Begin planning in earnest for a new river crossing upriver. Plan, as proposed by Mayors Mark Stodola and Pat Hays: After the construction of the new bridge, convert the Broadway Bridge into a glorious public plaza between Dickey-Stephens Park and the Robinson Music Hall. It would be Little Rock's own version of New York's wildly popular High Line railroad-to-park conversion.

A beautiful dream or another monstrosity to keep highway engineers busy? The Highway Department has made it clear it favors monstrosity.

Remember this when they ask you to increase your sales tax to build four-lanes between Turkey Gizzard and Bumfuzzle. They spit on your idea of sound planning and good design. They prefer the spend-it-now-and-hang-the-cost-of-traffic-disruptions school of money management.

More by Max Brantley

Gary Heathcott the long-time ad and PR man who now lives in San Antonio has sued CJRW, the major ad and PR firm, over its severing of a consulting deal with him last year and asks $1.3 million in actual damages plus unspecified punitive damages.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed numerous judicial ethics complaints against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh because the law exempts Supreme Court members, even for acts committed as a judge covered by the law. In short: Bart O'Kavanaugh is above the law.

Brett Rains of 40/29 is tweeting from the Capitol that the Department of Human Services is slowing its push for cuts in reimbursements for home health aides that critics have said could force many people into more expensive nursing home and force companies that provide the services out of business.

June 2018 is the expected publication date for a novel collaboration by former President Bill Clinton and crime writer James Patterson.

The Wall Street Journal reports here on how Russian troll farms have exploited cracks in social media for propaganda purposes, appropriating images for re-use in their disinformation campaigns. Arkansas angle:

You want to hear the words of a strong mayor? Read the speech delivered by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on the removal of the last of four Lost Cause tributes in the city. THIS is a strong mayor. Brilliant.

by Max Brantley

May 22, 2017

Slideshows

Arkansas vs Ole Miss at War Memorial stadium in Little Rock, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. After leading for much of the game, Arkansas lost 37-33 when Ole Miss scored the game winning Touchdown with less that 2 minutes left.